The annual Star Citizen convention, Citizen Con, is one of the events where Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) usually shows off some cool technologies that are being built into its crowd-funded space simulator title, Star Citizen. This year's convention was no different, with Chris Roberts unveiling a planet that was entirely covered in cities, an early implementation of alien fauna, and other features.
The full playthrough of the live demo is seen above, with gameplay beginning at the 11:35 mark. The first planet seen in the demo is ArcCorp, a world where every inch of the surface has been built upon, and as Roberts himself states, features quite Blade Runner-esque visuals.
ArcCorp has been available in Star Citizen alpha for some years now, however, only as a closed off level that players can spawn in and out of. CIG has now integrated this 'level' into the persistent universe and expanded it into an entire planet.
While densely packed using designer assisted procedural generation, not every building on the planet will have an interior, with the developer planning only to provide a few hub areas on the surface where players can land, and find missions as well as other interesting situations.
During the demo, ArcCorp's fancy and futuristic landscape was left behind to take us to another planet situated in the same star system, the mining and manufacturing planet of Hurston. However, as the journey takes eight minutes to complete even in quantum travel, CIG took the opportunity to showcase the tools that it has built for procedurally generating buildings and interiors on planet surfaces. The developer tool showcase begins at the 32:25-minute mark in the presentation, with CIG emphasizing that tools such as these were needed to be built first to furnish the massive universe it is constructing from scratch.
All in all, this was probably one of the more expansive Star Citizen demos that CIG has held, showcasing once more how seamless the travel from a planet surface to orbit, and then to an entirely different planet is. The presentation was mostly hiccup-free as well; the gameplay was smooth, the visuals were impressive, and there were no crashes to speak of, unlike the recent gamescom presentation.
Note that these features will not be included in the upcoming Star Citizen 3.0 Alpha release, with the demo serving as an early look at what systems Cloud Imperium Games is working on for the future. Meanwhile, the 3.0 Alpha should be launching soon, with it currently undergoing rigorous testing before its public release.
Source: Star Citizen (YouTube)
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